9/7/26 - Bidong Zhang was awarded the Nier Prize by the Meteoritical Society. Learn more: https://meteoritical.org/nier-prize2

7/7/26 - Tsai-Wei Chen led a new paper on in situ Rb-Sr geochronology. Read the paper: https://doi.org/10.1039/d6ja00170j3

6/9/26 - Bidong Zhang was invited to give a talk on the RARE Lab and the meteorite collection at a Rice Development and Alumni Relations event.

 

3/23/26 - Rice University recognizes a recent grant (“Developing Next-Generation Lunar Radiometric Dating by LA-MC-ICP-MS/MS”) awarded to Bidong Zhang and the RARE lab. This grant, which is funded by the NASA Laboratory Analysis of Returned Samples, promises $2.54 million over a three-year period to support the development of next-generation lunar radiometric dating techniques to better constrain the ages of lunar rocks.

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3/22/26 - On March 21st, a meteor tore through the sky above California and Texas before breaking up into multiple pieces over North Houston. This exciting event received a lot of media attention, especially since one of the meteorites ended up striking a lucky (or unlucky) house. Bidong Zhang was on the scene the very next day. His expertise was noticed by NBC news, who interviewed him for their segment.